A need exists for a lightweight portable racking tool that can prevent harm to operators while working on electrical equipment that is susceptible to arcing during testing, maintenance, replacement, repair, or the like.
A need exists for a racking tool that can be lifted with a single hand and used for performing testing, maintenance, replacement, repair, or the like. For example, the racking tool can be used to replace one or more portions of electrical equipment in a circuit breaker room on a piece-by-piece basis, without shutting down power to the entire facility; thereby allowing facilities to continue operating critical equipment.
Large facilities, such as hospitals, power plants, and hotels, often have to shut down all power in the facility for one or more hours in order to test, maintain, replace, or repair circuit breakers in a switching room due to arcing that can occur when the power is not shut down. For example, a hotel might have to shut off power, such as from 3:00 AM to 4:30 AM at least once a year, to replace used or worn equipment. Hotels often have pilots and other guests staying with them that need to be awake at 4:00 AM, and such power interruptions will encourage these guests to stay at another hotel that night, leading to a loss of revenue.
Hospitals that need to shut down power to perform similar operations need to provide back up power to emergency rooms, life support facilities, and intensive care units, such as where patients are on breathing machines. The time, scheduling, and costs involved can be immense, and loss of patient life can occur if something goes wrong.
However, if no shut down is performed, the switching room can generate “arcs” of electricity that can cause severe burns to operators that are manually installing or removing the electrical equipment.
A need has long existed for a portable racking tool that can be operated by a person without needing to shut down power to the facility to install and remove circuit breakers or similar “electric arc” producing equipment.
The present embodiments meet these needs.
The present embodiments are detailed below with reference to the listed figures.